Methods and systems for communication with beamforming antennas

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10602373-B2
Application number	US-201615350451-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 14, 2016
Priority date	Jun 15, 2015
Publication date	Mar 24, 2020
Grant date	Mar 24, 2020

Abstract

Holographic beamforming antennas may be utilized for adaptive routing within communications networks, such as wireless backhaul networks. Holographic beamforming antennas may be further utilized for discovering and/or addressing nodes in a communication network with steerable, high-directivity beams. Holographic beamforming antennas may be further utilized for extending the range of communications nodes and providing bandwidth assistance to adjacent nodes via dynamic adjacent cell assist. In some approaches, MIMO is used in concert with holographic beamforming for additional channel capacity.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of operating a network node that includes a holographic beamforming antenna, comprising: configuring the holographic beamforming antenna to point a high directivity beam at a first adjacent node; receiving information indicating a rerouting preference; and reconfiguring the holographic beamforming antenna to point a high directivity beam at a second adjacent node according to the rerouting preference, wherein the high directivity beam is a narrow point-to-point beam for communication with the first and second adjacent nodes; wherein the configuring and the reconfiguring of the holographic beamforming antenna include modulating electromagnetic properties of a surface to define a holographic pattern on the surface for scattering of a reference wave; and wherein each of the first and second adjacent nodes is a macro cell node or a small cell node.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the network node is a root node, the first adjacent node is a first mesh node, and the second adjacent node is a second mesh node.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the network node is a mesh node, the first adjacent node is a first adjacent mesh node, and the second adjacent node is a second adjacent mesh node.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the network node is a mesh node, the first adjacent node is an adjacent root note, and the second adjacent node is an adjacent mesh node.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the network node is a mesh node, the first adjacent node is an adjacent mesh note, and the second adjacent node is an adjacent root node.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the receiving of the information indicating the rerouting preference is a receiving of information indicating physical or electromagnetic interference with a communications channel between the communications node and the first adjacent node.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the receiving of information indicating physical or electromagnetic interference with the communications channel is an observing of a decrease in a signal-to-interference-plus noise or carrier-to-interference-plus-noise metric for the communications channel.

8. The method of claim 6 , wherein the receiving of information indicating physical or electromagnetic interference with the communications channel is a receiving of channel state information indicating a reduced channel quality.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the receiving of information indicating the rerouting preference is a receiving of information indicating an outage condition at the first adjacent node.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first adjacent node is a mesh node having a network path to a root node, and the receiving of information indicating the rerouting preference is a receiving of information indicating an outage condition for the path between the mesh node and a first root node.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the receiving of information indicating the rerouting preference is a receiving of an instruction to reroute to the second adjacent node.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the receiving of the instruction to reroute is a receiving of an instruction to reroute from a network operations center.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the receiving of the instruction to reroute is a receiving of the information via a network that includes the network node and the first and second adjacent nodes.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the network is a subsidiary network.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the subsidiary network is a WLAN, WiMAX, 2G, 3G, 4G/LTE, FM, or Bluetooth network.

16. A system for operating a network node that includes a holographic beamforming antenna, comprising: an antenna control unit that includes circuitry for adjusting control inputs of the holographic beamforming antenna to point a high directivity beam at a first adjacent node; where the antenna control unit further includes circuitry for receiving information indicating a rerouting preference and readjusting the control inputs of the holographic beamforming antenna to point a high directivity beam at a second adjacent node according to the rerouting preference, wherein the high directivity beam is a narrow point-to-point beam for communication with the first and second adjacent nodes; wherein the circuitry for adjusting and the circuitry for readjusting the control inputs of the holographic beamforming antenna include circuitry for modulating electromagnetic properties of a surface to define a holographic pattern on the surface for scattering of a reference wave; and wherein each of the first and second adjacent nodes is a macro cell node or a small cell node.

17. The system of claim 16 , further comprising: the holographic beamforming antenna.

18. The system of claim 16 , wherein the network node is a root node, the first adjacent node is a first mesh node, and the second adjacent node is a second mesh node.

19. The system of claim 16 , wherein the network node is a mesh node, the first adjacent node is a first adjacent mesh node, and the second adjacent node is a second adjacent mesh node.

20. The system of claim 16 , wherein the network node is a mesh node, the first adjacent node is an adjacent root note, and the second adjacent node is an adjacent mesh node.

21. The system of claim 16 , wherein the network node is a mesh node, the first adjacent node is an adjacent mesh note, and the second adjacent node is an adjacent root node.

22. The system of claim 16 , wherein the circuitry for receiving the information indicating the rerouting preference includes circuitry for receiving information indicating physical or electromagnetic interference with a communications channel between the communications node and the first adjacent node.

23. The system of claim 22 , further comprising:
a transmitter or receiver connectable to a feed port of the holographic beamforming antenna; and
a modem coupled to the transmitter or receiver.

24. The system of claim 23 , wherein the circuitry for receiving information indicating physical or electromagnetic interference with the communications channel includes circuitry for receiving a signal-to-interference-plus-noise or carrier-to-interference-plus-noise metric from the modem.

25. The system of claim 23 , wherein the circuitry for receiving information indicating physical or electromagnetic interference with the communications channel includes circuitry for receiving channel state information from the modem indicating a reduced channel quality.

26. The system of claim 16 , wherein the circuitry for receiving the information indicating the rerouting preference includes circuitry for receiving information indicating an outage condition at the first adjacent node.

27. The system of claim 16 , wherein the first adjacent node is a mesh node having a network path to a root node, and the circuitry for receiving information indicating the rerouting preference includes circuitry for receiving information indicating an outage condition for the path between the mesh node and a first root node.

28. The system of claim 16 , wherein the circuitry for receiving information indicating the rerouting preference includes circuitry for receiving an instruction to reroute to the second adjacent node.

29. The system of claim 28 , further comprising:
a network module configured to receive the instruction to rerou

Assignees

• Searete Llc
• The Invent Science Fund I Llc

Inventors

• Black Eric J
• Deutsch Brian Mark
• Hannigan Russell J
• Katko Alexander Remley
• Machado Melroy
• Mccandless Jay Howard
• Urzhumov Yaroslav A

Classifications

• H04W16/06

  Hybrid resource partitioning, e.g. channel borrowing · CPC title

• H04B7/0617

  for beam forming · CPC title

• H04W48/16

  Discovering, processing access restriction or access information · CPC title

• H04W16/28 Primary

  using beam steering · CPC title

• H04B7/0413

  MIMO systems · CPC title